Maple Leafs 4, Bruins 3: Problematic penalty kill doom B's

Tuesday

Jan 14, 2014 at 10:10 PMJan 14, 2014 at 11:16 PM

By Dan CagenDaily News staff

BOSTON — In their pregame meeting, the Bruins coaching staff instructed the team that the Maple Leafs liked to go backdoor on the power play.Even with plenty of warning, the once-formidable Boston penalty kill isn't getting the job done.In the first period of Toronto's 4-3 win Tuesday night at TD Garden, James van Riemsdyk grabbed the puck to the right of the crease on the power play. Zdeno Chara had the former University of New Hampshire standout covered, but Johnny Boychuk was supposed to swivel his head and keep an eye on a forward crashing the other way.Boychuk didn't. Tyler Bozak came around the defenseman, took a pass that went through Boychuk's skates and scored the tying goal."It was identified before the game that they do that," coach Claude Julien said. "We need a little sharpness from individuals as well, and get a little more composure from the PK."The Maple Leafs added a second power-play goal in the second to take the lead for good. It was another stab at a slumping Boston penalty kill, which has allowed opponents to convert on 65.5 percent of power plays in the last eight games, a stretch coinciding with Dennis Seidenberg's exit from the lineup.Three of their five losses in that span can be directly attributable to the penalty kill, a strength of the team in Julien's first six years."It's just not good enough," Gregory Campbell said. "It's not the system. The system worked well for years. It's the individuals. We've got to group together and figure it out."Two weeks ago, the Islanders poured in four power-play goals as the Bruins came unhinged. In Anaheim last week, the Ducks scored three to repel a Boston comeback. Brad Marchand doesn't think there's been a pattern, but a series of different mistakes.It hasn't helped that goalie Tuukka Rask is going through his first rough stretch of the year. After posting a shutout in San Jose on Saturday, Rask allowed at least three goals for the fifth time in his last seven starts.When he's on top of his game, Rask normally would grab Jake Gardiner's power-play goal in the second period, a shot from above the right circle."It's frustrating, but we can't feel sorry for ourselves and same with me," Rask said. "I just have to battle through it and hope for the better."While the penalty kill has fallen apart, so too has the power play, the Bruins posting another 0 for 3 for the fourth straight game. They're 0 for 16 in the last six games, with no power-play goals in 2014.With Dougie Hamilton (concussion) out, Julien moved Chara to play the point on the second unit. Ryan Spooner moved to the first unit and Loui Eriksson took Spooner's position.Boston got most of its offense from the second line.The second unit of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and Reilly Smith got off to a quick start, however.On their second shift, Smith cut through three Maple Leafs with the puck, finally squeezing around defenseman Carl Gunnarsson while maintaining possession to get a backhand on goalie Jonathan Bernier. Bernier stopped that, but Marchand poked his stick past Dion Phaneuf to knock in the rebound for his 11th goal and seventh in 15 games.The line struck again seven minutes later, making it two goals in five shifts, with personal Leaf muncher Bergeron doing the deed this time. Bergeron grabbed a Chara shot that went wide to the right of the net, pivoted to put his back to the net and then backhanded the shot off Bernier and in."I think we're starting to click a little more each game," Marchand said of his line. "It seems to be a little bit of a snowball effect. We seem to be getting better each game. Even on the West Coast trip, we had a couple chances we would have liked to have capitalized on. It's nice to get a couple tonight, but we still need to do a little bit more."With the special teams off as much as it has been, it's proving to be difficult to overcome. The Bruins have lost five of eight, and are now tied with Tampa Bay atop the Atlantic Division."Every year we seem to go through this," Julien said. "In the middle of the season, we seem to go into a struggle and work our way out of it. So nothing is different."Dan Cagen can be reached at 508-626-3848 or dcagen@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanCagen.

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